David Rittich and Sam Bennett among Flames filing for salary arbitration

The NHLPA released the list of players filing for salary arbitration on Friday afternoon. Four Calgary Flames players elected to file for arbitration, headlined by goaltender David Rittich and forward Sam Bennett.

The only Flames’ restricted free agent that didn’t file for salary arbitration was Spencer Foo, as he’s signed in the KHL for the next two seasons so there wouldn’t be much of a point.

We’ll get into it more much more detail in the coming weeks, but the salary arbitration process involves the players camps describing players they feel they’re like (and should be paid like), with the team also providing examples of players they feel they’re like. Each side submits a case and a number, and the arbitrator decides who’s correct.

Filing for salary arbitration isn’t an indication that negotiations are going poorly, but what it does is put a time pressure on negotiations. In a week the NHLPA and NHL will announce the arbitration schedule, which will effectively tell both sides “Hey, if you don’t come to an agreement by your hearing date, we’ll impose a deal on you.” Very few arbitration cases actually hit the hearing room.

Under Treliving, 10 players have filed for salary arbitration. Two of them made it to the hearing – Lance Bouma in 2015 and Brett Kulak in 2018.

As Pat’s tweet noted, the fact that the Flames have hearings scheduled means that they’ll have access to the second buyout window in mid-August.